More orchids...

I had a meeting upstairs in the dining area, and found...
more orchids!!!

Wow.  I love these things....

Trees

One of the things I don't like while Dave is out of town: driving myself to work.  Traffic here is awful and every day on these highways makes retirement look that much more attractive.

But, since it isn't anywhere near speed, it give one a lot of time to ponder while still keeping an eye out for moronic moves by my fellow travelers.

This week I saw this:

...a very mature tree being moved - which made me ponder a few points:

• Who needs a tree so badly that they can't wait for one to grow?
• Who can afford that? (It can't be cheap...)
• Was this a tree from Brownsville (where the trucking company is from) that somehow needed to go North?
• How does the tree feel about this?
• Does it feel like a kidnap victim?
• Do trees panic?

See - if Dave had been here, I could have just asked him these questions and let it go...but now I'm stuck worrying about that tree....

Birthday Dinner

Okay - we admit it - we're food nerds...

We'd both rather eat 1 totally awesome chef-prepared meal every couple of months even if it means bologna or ramen the rest of the time...

And while we don't post our "foodie" pics on FB, I will post them here, just so we have a reminder in the blog book after the end of the year!

We celebrated Dave's birthday at Local, (voted one of the top 5 restaurants in all of Dallas), where Tracy Miller puts forth an incredible menu every single time! 

This time, I started out with an heirloom tomato salad 
(photos courtesy of Dave's new iPhone..)

and Dave had the lobster cakes.

We both had the tenderloin served on top of elongated tater tots...

...the meat was incredibly tender and perfectly cooked, and the potatoes were so good we plan to order them as a side to whatever we order next time we go.

Desert was extremely rewarding...

Dave's was a chocolate composed (mini chocolate souffle, ovaltine_spiked chocolate shake + chocolate brownie cookies)

and I went for the cake (a must if you are a chocolate fan...) and a mini-ice cream sandwich 

Ahhhh...

We can hardly wait for an excuse to go again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE!!!!

I know getting older is hard... but it still beats the alternative!

Heaps of love to my guy!

More of Charlotte...

Tuesday, we explored Charlotte a little more...

We stopped by the old Courthouse (built 1845)...

which was next to a portion of Battle Creek where Dave used to fish...

and then we went on to the "new" courthouse (1863)

 - located downtown on the the courthouse square...

Also home to the local genealogy society where Dave was able to take photos of other photos of his Dad with other school teachers.

All in all, a nice calm trip with lots of gathered research!

Charlotte, Michigan

Dave spent a few years of his childhood in Charlotte, Michigan... we were able to find both of the houses where he lived (both have changed),

his elementary school,

and his High School (which is now a loft/apartment complex).

Monday, we spent the day at the library, where Dave was able to find all (we think) of the articles his Dad wrote for the local paper while they lived there...

Tuesday, coming up!

August Vacation II

On Sunday, we got up and headed out to Michigan... where Dave spent some of his childhood and where he went to college...

But - first stop... Defiance College - where his Dad spent some time and bought a brick for the fountain's surrounding plaza... took a while to find it, since it was coded...

I'm sure the campus has changed a lot since George was there, but it was neat to see it anyway... and the weather was wonderful!  Twenty degrees cooler than Dallas and it almost felt like Spring!

Then it was onward to East Lansing to pick up some Michigan State Spartan gear and a quick in-the-car tour of campus... of course, Mr. Alumni didn't realize it was Rush Week and there would be a billion people in town!

We kept it short and sweet and headed back to Charlotte as quickly as possible!

August Vacation

New rule:  Don't leave your phone at home when you go on vacation... 

not because I needed to call someone, but because I couldn't get the access code to the blog!  How annoying was that???

We took the time this year to go to an FGS (Federation of Genealogy Societies) conference in the wild location of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  

Fort Wayne - picture from internet

A city of about 250,000, we really didn't go exploring much beyond the convention center... which is a really nice one and we would be happy to go to another conference there anytime... these are all from the block of the convention center:

and while Dave went to 3 days of the conference, I just went to Thursday's sessions and sat in on three really interesting lectures on DNA for genealogy... but, best of all, I met the archivist for Stewart County, Tennessee - the county where my father's family is from and where I need to go visit!  I look forward to a trip to Tennessee right after I retire!


On Friday, I met up with Lois Eubank, owner of Born Again Quilts - I had purchased a partial crazy quilt from her Etsy store... it's only ~37"x57" so it's obviously part of a larger quilt... but the perfect size for over our bed!  Lois gave me a brief tour of some wonderful turn-of-the century houses before taking me over to her shop.  She had an overwhelming amount of stuff and her store will be fabulous once she gets the shelving installed and window facade finished.  I look forward to seeing it again someday!

Next up...Michigan!